Does Text Messaged Social Support Attenuate Cardiovascular and Psychological Reactivity to a Laboratory Stressor?

The current research examined the effects of text-messaged and in-person social support on cardiovascular and psychological stress responses. Of particular interest to this thesis was the question of whether text-messaged social support offered benefits similar to that of in-person social support. Female undergraduates (N = 49) and their female friends participated in an anticipated speech task. The participant's friends provided either in-person (n = 14), text-messaged (n = 17) social support, or no social support (n =18). Cardiovascular and psychological outcomes were tested by incorporating a series of theoretically driven planned contrasts using HLM piecewise growth curve modeling. In-person social support did not moderate systolic blood pressure (SBP) reactivity but did increase SBP recovery. In-person social support reduced social evaluative threat (SET) during both reactivity and recovery. Text-messaged social support attenuated SBP responses during reactivity, but increased SBP during recovery, and also reduced SET during recovery. This study indicates that text-messaged social support can reduce cardiovascular reactivity to a stressor.